Juliette Mason
''"You'll grow up, kid. Do your research, try out things. When the time to decide comes around, you'll know what's right for you. If this will be your destination, you'll find your way." - Jules to her grandson, Will, in December 2035'' Juliette Eilionoir Mason was born and raised in England, but now lives in Geneva, where she's been working as a physicist for easily over two decades. The only thing she's more dedicated to than her work is her family, including her long-term fiance, their two children and her grandson. Jules' Story 1990-1997 Juliette was born near the Whitehaven Marina in England, as the first child of her Scottish-English father and the second to her Italian-Swiss mother. Professor Doctor Teresa Fontana had brought her daughter Tess into the marriage, who's nine years older than Jules. With Colonel Colin Mason, she had Juliette and her two younger brothers. Pascal was born when Jules was four, Marcel when she was seven years old. Circa 1998-2008 Tess was 17 when she left for Cambridge, and along with her Teresa returned to her job as astrophysics professor at the renowned university. Due to the distance, Colin mostly raised the other three on his own from then on. The older Juliette got, the more time she spent taking over responsibilities to support him. The girl had just turned 12 when Teresa declared that she wanted to stay in Cambridge after Tess graduated. Colin got papers for the divorce in the mail a few weeks later. That was the final hit it took to drive the family apart. While Jules still occasionally called her sister, their mother was dead to her. Even more so when the then almost 14 year old found out what the woman had been running away from when she attached herself to Tess all these years ago: Colin's heart was failing. Juliette had found his medication in a higher kitchen cabinet, looked up the name and confronted him about it. He'd told her that he found out during Teresa's last pregnancy, but preferred to keep it to himself. Especially after his wife decided she couldn't handle his condition, he never wanted his children to know. That's also the reason he gave Juliette when she asked why he wasn't getting surgery or further treatment. He'd just wanted to forget about it and live for however long he would have. Jules, incredibly worried but also very proud of her father, supported him in every way she could. As his condition worsened, Juliette took over more and more responsibilities. She took care of her father and brothers before and after school every day, and dedicated her weekends to keeping the three of them together as much as possible. They fell into a slightly tense but oddly comforting routine, especially after a 17 year old Jules explained the situation to her younger brothers. They were shocked, but immediately had their sister's and father's back. She taught them a lot, fully diving into the open role of a mother for them despite her young age. All of that had convinced Jules to drop every plan involving a higher education or occupation. However, Colin vehemently disagreed. He didn't want his beloved daughter to waste her beautiful mind, and kept encouraging her to go to university. Eventually, she gave in despite her doubts. What she hadn't known was that Colin already went through things with Teresa . Neither of them had wanted them to watch their father die day by day, so their mother took over legal custody and paid for a place near Cambridge for Juliette, Pascal and Marcel. Circa 2012-2018 Juliette was 22 and about to graduate, Pascal was almost 19 and already started taking classes at university himself and Marcel was 15, when their father died. The young woman blamed herself, because she'd gotten so caught up in studying and raising two teenagers that she could hardly remember the last time she took them to visit him. She was still midway through the grieving process when Pascal assured her that he could handle things in Cambridge, taking care of their youngest like she'd been looking after both of them, and she moved to Geneva. She'd gotten a job at CERN, which was an opportunity of a lifetime for the young physicist. At her new workplace, the first project she was assigned to was led by no other than Joshua Donovan. She had still been feeling rather lost and alone, in a place she'd never been to and so shortly after her father's funeral. He'd approached her about it, started by telling her how impressed he'd been by the work that got her this job in first place and how much he was looking forward to seeing her full potential. Then they'd started exchanging stories, and Joshua quickly became a close confidant to her. He helped her through a rough time, and they grew closer over scientific research or him showing her around and helping her settle in. She'd known right away that she liked him as more than a friend, and had usually been confident that he felt the same way about her. But she waited until she was sure she was back on track and ready to make a move, and he patiently waited for her. They'd known each other for almost a year when they made things official. (Literally, since there was paperwork for coworkers who got "privately involved".) In between work keeping them busy and their pasts messing with them, they'd both agreed to take things step by step. The topic of children had come up, but since they'd both seen the younger siblings they were so protective of suffer under uncontrollable events during their childhood, he had lost his parents when he was barely an adult and she only had a mother she didn't talk to anymore, neither of them wanted to rush things. They'd agreed not to plan into that direction, at least until they were married for a year or two. But when did things ever follow either of their plans? In 2014, 23 year old Juliette found out she was pregnant. While she'd never actually considered anything other than keeping the baby and raising it themselves, she spent months of her pregnancy just panicking and picturing all the things that could go wrong. The first thing she'd done was to contact a doctor to get her heart checked, afraid beyond anything that she could inherit her father's illness to her child. They'd assured her that chances were in their favor, but the fear never quite wore off. It wasn't until she was halfway through her pregnancy, when she knew she'd have a son and the ultrasound images started making sense to her, that she was overtaken by utter joy for the first time. From then on, she really started to see what the future was bringing. A family, a tiny human being that was half herself and half the man she loved. She was still scared, but she was also over the moon. On the 13th of December 2014, she firstly held Jeffrey Collin Donovan in her arms. Living with her boyfriend and their son was exhausting. It drained her of energy and filled her with fear, and she absolutely loved it. She knew she could never leave her family like her mother did. She'd stay with these two until the end of her days, no matter what would try to tear them apart. Needless to say, her happiness was complete when Joshua celebrated his latest scientific success by asking her to marry him in early 2017. However, they never got a chance to even really plan their wedding. The day after his proposal, Josh disappeared during an experiment exploring faster-than-light-travel. Of course, Juliette immediately tried to figure out what happened. She buried herself in the theory her fiancé had been testing, blaming the stress of working too much and missing him for the familiar symptoms that started to creep in. By the time she stopped running away from what she'd subconsciously realized weeks ago, she had already entered the second trimester of her second pregnancy. She desperately wanted to bring Joshua home, tell him about the news and drag him with her through every step of this. Since talking to Joshua wasn't currently an option, she called her siblings and sisters-in-law. They all did their best to support her. Especially Claire proved to be helpful, sharing the pain of raising a daughter who would grow up without her father. When Claire had been a fresh single mother, Juliette had helped her a lot and she wanted to return the favor. She'd stayed in Switzerland with Valeria through most of Jules' pregnancy, and in the first months of Grace's life. Despite living on different continents, they still visited each other often afterwards. 2020s Years passed by, and Juliette got used to her routine as a single mother. She was careful not to make the same mistakes as her own mother: She had picked up her tasks at work again fairly soon after Grace’s birth, to keep some sense of normalcy, but her life was dedicated to her children. Jules always made sure to show them love, affection, loyalty and motherly pride. Negative emotions, especially her grief, were stored in crates in the back of her mind. They never vanished, but she never let them out either. Not until her daughter was enrolled into elementary school, after two years of home schooling. That was when she finally admitted to herself that she had to talk to someone. Otherwise out of options, she started seeing a therapist once a week once she’d brought her kids to school. She did that for almost two years, before a moment of success convinced her that she didn’t need it anymore: Juliette was promoted, and since then she’s one of the heads of CERN. 2030s By the time they reached the moment Joshua jumped to, it was December 2034. Their children were 20 and 17 years old. Of course heads turned when he showed up in Geneva again, after he was declared dead over a decade ago. A few nosy citizens couldn’t keep their suspicions to themselves, and Jules soon had to deal with sympathetic glances and rumors. Some of them thought she made up the circumstances surrounding his death to cover up the fact that he walked away from her, because he’d changed his mind about marrying her or because he didn’t want a second child, and others figured the man by her side could merely be some sort of replacement for the one she’d lost such a long time ago. They didn’t make it easy for her, but she brushed them off and focused on her reunited family. Juliette had struggled through many crises without her fiancé, such as their son's memory loss. Even after Joshua's return, Jules mostly continued to take over both of their responsibilities to give him time to adjust. She supported her daughter's fight for custody, which started around the time of Joshua's return, and helps Grace to take care of Will however she can. She remains in touch with her own brothers, Joshua’s sisters and her kids whenever they’re not around. Her relationship with her half-sister is still complicated, but compared to the one with their mother it has definitely improved. TBC... Physical Appearance Juliette is a 5'7''/1.70 m tall blonde with hazel eyes. She has a bright and quite frequently seen smile, and actually looks pretty young for her age. She started wearing her engagement ring on a chain around her neck about a year after Joshua was presumed dead (a misunderstanding, for the second time), and she still keeps it there. Skills Jules has an IQ of 179, which might be the one thing she would willingly thank her mother for. She’s well-versed in many scientific fields, especially within physics but also chemistry and biology. She learns very quickly, and can teach what she knows almost as well. Juliette also has a certain finesse, which is as helpful for her job as it has always been on their weekly Arts & Crafts Day with her children. She can draw quite well, and when she was a child her mother sent her to piano, ballet and violin lessons. Teresa also taught her how to speak and write in Italian, German, French and Romansh. Her father, on the other hand, made sure she learned how to defend herself. Colin never pressured her to learn his own secondary language, namely the narrowly spread Scottish Gaelic, but she did that by her own choice. Personality & Habits Jules is kind, loyal and patient, which helped her a lot as she raised her kids more or less on her own. She's been taught to be independent, honest and tough at a young age, and that has also proven its worth over the years. The physicist has always been inquisitive and protective, which has its good and bad sides, but she's pretty proud of it. Juliette knows what she's capable of, what she wants or doesn't want. We all have our insecurities, but she doesn't let them take charge of her life. However, she's been coping with abandonment issues since she was a kid, and always felt like she might care about people a lot more than they would ever care about her. While she's not generally afraid to show emotions, she considers it her duty to stay strong for everyone she loves, especially Grace and Jeffrey. Juliette almost perfected the skill of keeping her feelings in check when she's with others. She lets love and affection, trust and motherly pride bleed through; but rarely her fear or anger or grief. Juliette has issues lying heavily on her wounded heart, and sometimes she just wants to scream them into the wind. She wants her sister to hear how mad she was that Tess rather stood by their mother than her siblings after Teresa abandoned them; She wants to yell at Will's paternal family for keeping the child from his mother for so long; She wants Joshua to know how it makes her feel that he's taking such a long time to adjust and how she's felt all those years when he was gone... Lost, forgotten, lonely and helpless. There's so much more, but her fears keep her from telling them. She let a few things slip out to her sisters in law or her brothers when she just couldn't hold it in anymore, but she's terribly afraid of losing what she has. They could argue, they could leave her, they could feel guilty; and Juliette doesn't want any of that. It's a cliché thing to say, but what always kept her going was love. Love for her father, before and after he died; Love for her brothers, who she always just wanted to protect; love for her sister, despite their complicated relationship; love for her mother, even after she gave up on her family; love for Joshua, no matter how long they'd been apart; love for her family-in-law, who supported her so much during the worst times; and of course, the undying love for her very own children and her grandson. When Juliette gets emotional, one way or another, her accent gives away her origins more than at any other time. It’s a wild mixture that sometimes makes it a challenge to figure out where she was born and raised, since her grandparents were of four different nationalities. It rarely happens that she starts talking in one of her family’s other mother languages without intending to. The blonde has a lot of rather juvenile little habits, such as sitting on the table either crisscross or with her legs swaying back and forth, which betray her usually so mature nature. She likes to doodle, twirls her hair around her fingers and sometimes she gets childishly exuberant. Relationships Joshua Donovan (fiancé) They’ve known each other since 2012, and got engaged in 2017. Even after over a decade and a half of separation, her love and loyalty towards him didn’t lessen the slightest bit. Jeffrey Collin Donovan & Grace Annabelle Donovan (son & daughter) Since Jeff already didn’t remember much of his father before his memory loss, Jules was pretty much a single mom all the way through. She always did whatever she could to keep her kids safe and happy, and told them stories about Joshua so they could know him in a way. William Samuel Donovan (grandson) While his mere existence was an unexpected revelation, Juliette quickly settled into her role as a grandmother and she makes sure to make him feel welcome and loved in their home. She wants him to remember that she’s always there for him as he grows up, no matter which way he chooses to go. Colin Mason (father; deceased) Regardless of how long ago she lost him, her father will always be Jules’ hero and mentor. He was dedicated, selfless, clever and brave. He served his country and his family all his life, and always put them before himself. Even towards the end, when he knew he didn’t have much longer, he still managed to be his daughter’s rock. Teresa Fontana (mother) Her mother was never exactly Juliette’s best friend, but after the divorce they basically became strangers. They haven’t seen each other in years, Teresa doesn’t know her grandkids, and Jules intends to keep it that way. Pascal Mason & Marcel Mason (brothers) Juliette took over the role of her brothers’ mother figure early on, since their actual mother wasn’t too eager to do it. She encouraged and defended them, fooled around with them and had their backs when they got into trouble. They helped each other through their loss, and remained in touch throughout the years. Jules is incredibly proud of the men her younger brothers became, and they truly appreciate how she’s helped them to get there. Tess Fontana (maternal half-sister) The half-sisters have a rather complicated relationship. They care about one another a lot. Their bond was never as harmonious as the ones Jules formed with Cal and Marcel, but it remained strong nonetheless. Things got very tense between them when Tess sided with Teresa after the divorce, but they managed to reconnect after she approached her younger sister at Colin’s funeral to apologize. Claire Marie Donovan & Claudia Simone Donovan (“sisters”) Joshua’s sisters easily accepted Juliette as a part of the family once he introduced them, and they grew even closer after his second alleged death. Jules had supported Claire when she was overwhelmed by becoming and being a mother, and Claude and especially Claire helped her to raise Jeff and Grace without their father in return. Since they didn’t get to call themselves sisters-in-law, at some point they decided to stick with sisters. Juliette Elionoir.jpg PicsArt 06-08-09.17.45.jpg PicsArt 11-26-11.40.16.png PicsArt 11-27-04.00.18.png PicsArt 11-27-05.00.35.png PicsArt 11-28-04.40.32.png PicsArt 11-28-04.49.28.jpg PicsArt 11-28-04.52.47.jpg Category:Mason Family Category:Original Characters Category:Female Characters Category:All Characters Category:Belladonna's Blossoms Category:Born: 1990s Category:Born: April